Commons vote, but none for AssemblySIR - I recently discovered, quite by accident, that although I live in Barcelona I am entitled to vote in UK elections for up to 15 years in the place I was last registered. This came to light in a BBC report about the Tory Party targeting the votes of expat Brits.

The electoral services unit where I last lived in Wales confirmed this and sent me a form to register as an overseas elector. Fine. I still take a keen interest in Welsh affairs and keep up to date via the splendid BBC, Western Mail and Daily Post websites.

But there is a big snag. I can vote in elections to the Commons or Brussels but not in elections to the Welsh Assembly.

Why not? Thanks to devolution, the Assembly is far more relevant to Wales on a day-to-day basis than the Commons is, so why this discrimination? Could someone explain this to me?

It seems that the faceless Whitehall officials who originally drafted this legislation decided that Wales could not possibly be of any importance to anyone outside Wales, even Welsh people. And it would appear that, in letting it through, some Welsh politicians think so too. What an insult.

JOHN WILLIAMSL'Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain

Trivialising slaverySIR - I want to express my great dismay and disappointment at the recent actions of Jonathan Morgan AM in trivialising slavery in his attack on Julie Morgan MP. I have been working in this field for many years and have never heard of Jonathan Morgan or his contribution in any sphere of public life. He trivialises the seriousness of slavery and demeans that Welsh sensitivity and candour which led, and leads, the world towards its abolition. His insensitivity surely excludes him from public office at any level. In comparison I have witnessed the tireless efforts of Julie Morgan MP to champion her local community and the less fortunate in society.

MS MUTALE NYONIMitre Place, Llandaff

Wales in profitSIR - In his letter, published in the Western Mail yesterday, Anthony Lynch claims that Wales is being short-changed because the Welsh block grant only amounts to #11bn out of #17bn tax raised in Wales.

What Mr Lynch fails to realise is that the Welsh block grant is not the only money which the UK Treasury allocates to Wales. He forgets that there are many areas of government expenditure which have not been devolved to the WAG, not least state pensions, benefits and tax credits, and which are therefore not included in the Welsh block. When all these items are factored in, the Government's outgoings in Wales far exceed the tax revenue raised in Wales.

There was a time when for every #2 the Welsh taxpayers put into the Treasury, they got #3 back. I don't know what the differential is now, but I would be very surprised if it has narrowed.

DON HADFIELD,Orchard Castle, Thornhill, Cardiff

Labour's mistakesSIR - Labour have been shouting about the Welsh Liberal Democrat's alleged vote for a rise in Council Tax, but it seems obvious to me that this attack is an attempt to cover up the fact that it is their mishandling of the Welsh police funding in both Cardiff Bay and Westminster that has backed North Wales against a wall.

The North Wales Police Authority has been forced into a financial black hole while trying to sustain a service fit for residents in North Wales. They struggle, as do all Welsh police authorities, to cope with a meagre settlement from Westminster that Labour in the Assembly is too timid to challenge. The funding given to North Wales Police Authority from Cardiff Bay is still below the level needed to keep up with basic inflation rates. And all this after Westminster's disastrous merger plans left Welsh Police Authorities having to fight to get their money back.

Next year, it is likely we will see other police authorities resorting to council tax precepts above 5% just like North Wales. Labour will have to accept this, as it is the result of their own failure to provide adequate funding for the services they want Welsh police authorities to provide.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have long held the position that it is neither fair nor right for the Assembly to dictate how many police officers there should be in North Wales. Our first priority is safety. North Wales Police know better than AMs in Cardiff Bay how much that costs.

Don't be taken in by Labour's pre-election smokescreen tactics - council taxpayers are footing the bill for Labour's mistakes.

ELEANOR BURNHAM AMWelsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for North Wales

Idle civil servantsSIR - If bleating senior civil servants are the indicator I believe them to be, then clearly Gordon Brown, as the British economy shows, is doing his job.

Obviously the Chancellor has been overseeing First Division players who are not accustomed to such scrutiny. If as Prime Minister the iron fist was slipped into the velvet glove at the Home Office the country would benefit enormously. Transferring one or two drones to early retirement - perhaps sacking a few - would polish the work ethic and abolish the lethargy. There are many hard-working civil servants but also many who are just prepared to stand and watch.

DENNIS JONESPark Place, Newbridge, Gwent

Iraqi freedomSIR - As I see all the images of the killing, dying, and disaster that emanates out of Iraq, I can't help but think of my visit in 2000 to that blood-soaked country. I went at that time to smuggle in badly needed drugs and medical equipment to the overstretched and impoverished hospitals, and I travelled the length and breadth of Iraq .

Despite the fact that our forces were dropping bombs daily, and our sanctions had crippled the economy and brought the population to the brink of starvation, I was treated with unbelievable hospitality and welcomed everywhere I went.

Why? Because I was prepared to come, look and listen to the plight of the Iraqi people. At every hospital, there were doctors and nurses working tirelessly under atrocious conditions. Every school was packed with students, and even though they had very little equipment they showed their artwork and homework books proudly.

Today, Iraq is in flames. Every one of the charitable organisations that helped to sustain Iraq through that difficult period has left. Hospitals are filled with the dead and dying, with few doctors and medical staff brave enough to continue working. Schools once filled with pupils now stand empty, and the streets are too dangerous for pupils to venture out.

The disillusioned Iraqi people have come to realise that the freedom promised by Britain and America was a cruel ploy to gain control of Iraqi oil reserves. The gesture towards democracy which was foisted on the people turned out to be nothing but a sham.

The only decent thing we can do to mark the fourth anniversary of the illegal war in Iraq is to get our troops out now, and allow the Iraq people to take control of their own lives and travel down their own road to freedom.

RAY DAVIESVice Chair CND Cymru

Thatcherite trapSIR - In their zeal for Assembly-bashing, some recent correspondents are falling into the Thatcherite trap of believing that the public sector is always bad - while the private sector is bound to be good. At least Mrs T had the excuse that she'd watched too many episodes of Yes Minister and probably believed that all public sector workers were overpaid mandarins like Sir Humphrey.

In reality, of course, the "public sector" is largely people like police officers, schoolteachers, paramedics street-cleaners, and nurses. When people are in trouble it's to the public sector they turn.

If we should blame the Assembly at all in relation to the public sector it's for employing too few of us, not too many. That's why we still have too-long waiting lists in the NHS, why some school classes are still too big, why there's still too much litter on our streets.

At least here in Wales we are currently spared the dafter excesses of the Blatcherite dogma that the public sector can be made more "efficient" by importing private-sector solutions. So, unlike England, we don't have large-scale PFI (deferring massive public debt to the future), or school league tables (enhancing inequality and inflating house prices).

Far from apologising for increasing public-sector employment, WAG can claim it as a worthwhile achievement, and one which would be greatly strengthened if only Rhodri could persuade Gordon to send us a bit more cash across his clear red water.

IAN HUGHESMaes-y-Fioled, Morganstown, Cardiff

Nationalist nonsenseSIR - Once again the Nationalist Party are mixing fiction and ignorance in equal measure in their ludicrous claims about compensation for miners (Letters, March 21).

The Labour government inherited a case from the previous Tory regime in 1997. When the courts decided, the government chose not to appeal but to accept the ruling in full and to get on with compensating the miners.

The compensation, no more than the miners are due, is affordable only because Wales is at the heart of the United Kingdom.

If the Nationalists ever got their wish and ripped our country out of the UK then not only would the compensation become unaffordable, but the health service the former miners rely on for treatment would go into immediate decline as the Welsh economy spiralled into crisis.

More generally, Ian Titherington's letter illustrates a fundamental truth about the Nationalists' approach to politics - they are great on complaints but lacking in serious solutions to the issues faced by the people of Wales.

Theirs is the politics of the playground, but name-calling is no substitute for leadership and to whinge is not the same as to decide.